SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
florida board of education
Florida Isn’t Teaching Its Students About the Climate Crisis Threatening the State’s Survival
Instead, its “education” department has approved a series of right-wing videos from Prager U, which draws much of its funding from some of the country’s biggest frackers.
Aug 15, 2023
On the list of crazy weather records this overheated summer, it’s possible that the single most extreme might have been a 101.1°F temperature measured by an ocean buoy at Manatee Bay in Florida in July. That appears to be the hottest temperature ever measured in the ocean; it’s in a murky and shallow stretch of the Keys, but across the entire Gulf coast temperatures are truly astounding. The average for the Gulf of Mexico this week is more than 88°F , crushing the average for the date across the last three decades by two and a half degrees; God forbid a hurricane gets loose in there any time soon. Coral reef researchers were reporting “100% mortality” at sites in the Keys.
So you would think that as Florida students return to school this fall, studying up on climate change would be a no-brainer—if physics and chemistry usually seem a little abstract, nothing could be more immediate than an ocean running at Jacuzzi temperatures. There’s so many ways you could study it, from the youngest students to high school seniors, and it would bring everything from history to economics alive. Some of it might be sad—I was deeply moved by this Diana Nyad piece about swimming in the ocean she’d known since she was a girl now that it was 100°F. But I was fascinated by her writing—read this one paragraph and think about the different directions a talented teacher could take it:
At age 9, after the Cuban Revolution, I searched the horizon to catch a glimpse of Cuba, this suddenly forbidden island. My mother pointed out across the ocean and said to me: “There. Havana is just across there. It’s so close that you, you little swimmer, you could actually swim there.” Later, after five attempts over 35 years, I finally did make that crossing. But I couldn’t have made that swim last month. In such hot water, the body heat I’d generate from the duress of the effort—a continuous 52 hours and 54 minutes—would quickly lead to overheating and failure. And danger. Hyperthermia would conquer even the strongest of wills.
But that’s not what Florida students will necessarily be studying this year. Instead, the state’s “education” department has approved a series of right-wing videos from Prager U, which draws much of its funding from some of the country’s biggest frackers. And they’re getting their money’s worth: The videos that Prager sends out explain, for instance, that “the planet has heated up and cooled since prehistoric times, even without the burning of fossil fuels.” Which, duh, but this time it’s—as every part of the scientific community agrees—because of the burning of fossil fuels. In one video, a Polish girl tries to explain to her classmates that like solar and wind energy that clean energy is in fact “unreliable, expensive, and difficult to store.” Which is no longer true: it’s now the cheapest power on the planet. By all accounts, Gulf neighbor Texas survived its epic heatwave earlier this summer precisely because it had so much solar and so many batteries hooked to its grid.
It’s not enough to carry water for the fossil fuel industry; the carriers would also like to imagine themselves as brave fighters against Nazism. To call it all shameless barely begins to scratch the surface.
The most obnoxious part of the Prager videos, though, is the preening they engage in. The Polish girl’s grandfather tells her not to worry that her friends think she’s old-fashioned for wanting to stick with coal; he compares her stand with the bravery of the Warsaw uprising. As a narrator explains, “Through her family’s stories, Ania is realizing that fighting oppression is risky and that it always takes courage.”
It’s not enough to carry water for the fossil fuel industry; the carriers would also like to imagine themselves as brave fighters against Nazism. To call it all shameless barely begins to scratch the surface. And the ugliness of it all is really amazing. According to Politico, a PragerU video about a child in Africa features a narrator calmly attacking solar and wind because “their batteries break down and become hazardous waste” and because it’s risky “to rely on things like wind and sunlight, which are not constant.” I have spent a fair amount of time in rural African communities which got power only because cheap solar became available, talking to kids who for the first time ever have light to read by at night. As one father in Cote d’Ivoire told me, “You can feel the effects with their grades now at school.”
But not in Florida’s schools, where anyone who watches this Prager nonsense will emerge dumber than before. And that’s galling, since the Sunshine State, throughout the lifetimes of these students, will need to be making a series of good decisions if it’s going to survive in anything like its present form. Already, for instance, major insurers are pulling out of the state; Newsweek reported that its residents might soon be “uninsurable.” But instead of starting to prepare students for the real world, the state will let them bathe in the warm water of denial.
Happily, there are educators at work in the state, and making a difference. Florida weatherman Jeff Berardelli may be the best example. From his post at WFLA, and across social media, he’s been telling the story of this summer in straightforward and useful terms. He gave an interview recently where he explained his thinking:
My job is to educate people about what I know, right? I live at the intersection between weather and climate, and specifically extreme weather and climate change. That’s my specialty. So, there are certain events that are going to take place and have been taking place that are going to be pretty alarming and I think it’s my job as a scientist, the person who kind of lives at the intersection of both of those things, to put it into context and give people perspective on it.
These are good teaching opportunities, these moments, when extreme things happen, they allow me to kind of educate people on the latest science, the latest studies… the latest facts about how climate change is impacting our extreme weather… My role is to act as both the scientist and also a communicator, because that’s exactly the field that I’m in.
This is not radical thinking, it’s not agenda-driven, it’s not partisan. It’s precisely the kind of teaching we used to take for granted in America.
Keep ReadingShow Less
AP Psychology Effectively Banned in Florida Over Lesson on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity
"Sadly, it's all part of the DeSantis playbook of eroding rights, censoring those he disagrees with, and undermining access to knowledge," said one critic.
Aug 03, 2023
The Republican-controlled Florida Board of Education on Thursday effectively banned Advanced Placement Psychology by notifying school district superintendents that teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity—key subjects in college-level psychology curricula—is prohibited under the state's so-called "Don't Say Gay or Trans" law.
That means class schedules for the fall semester—which begins next week in most Florida school districts—are in limbo for thousands of students. Last year, around 28,000 pupils in more than 500 Florida high schools took AP Psychology.
"What a terrible decision that is 100% politically motivated."
In a statement, the College Board—the New York-based national body that approves AP courses and runs SAT testing—called sexual orientation and gender identity "essential topics" in psychology.
"The AP course asks students to 'describe how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development,'" the board explained. "This element of the framework is not new: gender and sexual orientation have been part of AP Psychology since the course launched 30 years ago."
"We cannot modify AP Psychology in response to regulations that would censor college-level standards for credit, placement, and career readiness," the body continued. "Our policy remains unchanged. Any course that censors required course content cannot be labeled 'AP' or 'Advanced Placement,' and the 'AP Psychology' designation cannot be utilized on student transcripts."
"To be clear, any AP Psychology course taught in Florida will violate either Florida law or college requirements," the College Board added. "Therefore, we advise Florida districts not to offer AP Psychology until Florida reverses their decision and allows parents and students to choose to take the full course."
As originally signed into law by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in March 2022, H.B. 1557—dubbed the "Don't Say Gay or Trans" bill by critics—"prohibits classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity" in grades K-3 or at any level "that is not age-appropriate." In May, DeSantis expanded the legislation to include all grades K-12.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, condemned the "slippery slope of government censorship and bans" in DeSantis' Florida.
"Sadly, it's all part of the DeSantis playbook of eroding rights, censoring those he disagrees with, and undermining access to knowledge," Weingarten said of the 2024 GOP presidential candidate, whose campaign has been accused of embracing homophobia.
"Just this year, countless educators have been forced to remove or cover up their classroom libraries under threat of sanctions and jail, countless students have lost out because the governor ended AP African American Studies, and now this assault on AP Psychology," she added. "It's an unconscionable but far-from-surprising move from an extremist and increasingly unpopular leader who is fast becoming both a national pariah and a global embarrassment."
At the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBTQ+ advocacy group, president Kelley Robinson said that "psychology is centered around people—all people."
"Erasing us from the curriculum ignores our existence, sets back Florida students who want to pursue psychology in higher education, and disrupts pathways for future mental health professionals to provide comprehensive, culturally competent mental healthcare for the LGBTQ+ community," she continued.
"College Board's AP Psychology curriculum is science-driven and endorsed by both educators and experts," Robinson noted. "Educational systems that reject the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people from their psychology courses are failing in their commitment to students."
"As anti-LGBTQ+ lawmakers pass discriminatory legislation and spread dangerous misinformation, we're continuing to see disturbing attempts to rewrite history and censor education, misaligned with the realities of our country," she added.
Florida State Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-42) said in a statement, "As someone who graduated from Florida public schools with college credit via AP classes, I know how powerful and effective these classes are and I am sick to my stomach to see what Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican Party are doing in our state."
Florida Department of Education Spokesperson Cassie Pelelis accused the College Board of "attempting to force school districts to prevent students from taking the AP Psychology."
"The department didn't 'ban' the course," she insisted. "The course remains listed in Florida's Course Code Directory for the 2023-24 school year. We encourage the College Board to stop playing games with Florida students and continue to offer the course and allow teachers to operate accordingly."
During the previous academic year, educators, students, parents, and Democratic lawmakers reacted angrily after the DeSantis administration rejected a new high school AP African American Studies course—without even seeing its syllabus—claiming it violated the state's ban on "woke" education and lacked "educational value."
In March, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's preliminary injunction against the Stop WOKE Act.
Keep ReadingShow Less
House Dems Slam 'Racist Tropes' in New Florida K-12 History Curriculum
Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost led the letter against "bigoted teaching standards in Florida that want kids to learn that Black people received 'benefits' from being enslaved."
Jul 22, 2023
Four Black Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday joined the growing chorus of critics opposing "racist tropes" in Florida's new K-12 history curriculum, which includes teaching middle school students "the resurrection of one of the greatest lies America has ever told itself, that slavery benefited the enslaved."
"Your decision to rewrite history to ingrain white supremacy into the minds of children is a colossal step backward and an insult to Black people, descendants of slaves, and the intellect of the American people," three Florida Democrats—Reps. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, and Frederica Wilson—and Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) wrote to the state's Department of Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. and Board of Education Chairman Ben Gibson.
The first-of-its-kind standards approved Wednesday by the Florida board "are not the truth of American history but riddled with falsehoods that minimize the unique racial terror experienced by Black people in America throughout time," the lawmakers argued.
"These standards are out of touch with reality and will leave future generations of Floridians out of touch and disadvantaged in the world outside of Florida," they warned. "Even worse, it plants the sinister thought that enslavement and continued harm toward Black people today is also acceptable and beneficial."
Flordia's mandated instruction that enslaved people developed "skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit" has garnered national attention but "is not the only dangerous falsehood," the quartet highlighted. They pointed out that the curriculum for middle school students "also requires downplaying and tempering the horror of American slavery by requiring it is coupled with teaching, 'how slavery was utilized in Asian, European, and African cultures,' 'the similarities and differences between serfdom and slavery,' and 'comparative treatment of indentured servants of European and African extraction.'"
Additionally, for high schoolers, the standards "list massacres of Black people in America as, 'examples of acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans,' falsely assigning shared responsibility to Black victims," the lawmakers noted.
"We demand the Florida Board of Education immediately reverse its decision," they concluded. "Not repealing these new standards would dig up the corpse of the worst version of our nation and force our children to live in it."
Frost, Cherfilus-McCormick, Wilson, and Horsford aren't the only critics of the Florida curriculum in Congress. U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), a Black former teacher and principal, tweeted Friday that "this is an outright attempt to rewrite history and ignore America's past of racial exploitation and violence and the trauma from the impact of slavery on Black Americans."
Congressman Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.)—a son of civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson—thanked Vice President Kamala Harris "for standing up for the truth" by blasting the Florida standards and declared that "we must be true to our history, even when it's painful."
The national alarm over Florida's curriculum comes after the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis—now a GOP 2024 presidential candidate—earned widespread criticism earlier this year for rejecting an Advanced Placement course about African American studies for high school students.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular